Croatian Dairy Farmers Dump Milk in Protest

Dairy farmers in the Djakovo area of eastern Croatia spilled about 70,000 litres of their cows' milk in a field on Tuesday.

The milk was poured from 11 tank trucks owned by milk producers from throughout the area. The farmers suspended milk deliveries to milk processors on Monday, demanding that the purchase price of the good be increased from the current 2 kuna per litre to 4.05 kuna.

Protesting farmers threatened other measures as well, including blocking border crossings, unless an agreement was reached at a meeting of the Dairy Council, scheduled to take place at the Ministry of Agriculture on Wednesday.

"If necessary, we will stop milk trucks from entering Croatia with our own bodies. (...) This is a message to Dukat which has announced that it will import milk to bridge the gap caused by the stoppage of deliveries," a representative of the dairy farmers, Antun Laslo, said.

He said that 70 percent of milk producers had joined the boycott, and that further moves would be decided after the Dairy Council meeting on Wednesday.